Cookstoves Future Summit

FAQ

To address the little-known issue of household air pollution (HAP) that kills 4.3 million people each year and sickens millions more, the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (Alliance) will host its first invitation-only Cookstoves Future Summit (Summit) in November 2014 to mark the transition from Phase 1 of the Alliance to Phase 2. The Summit is designed to convene the international community around a publicly-stated global commitment to reduce deaths, illness, and environmental degradation; empower women through the use of clean fuels and technologies; and accelerate the adoption of clean cooking solutions. A central component of the Summit will be the establishment of a market enabling programmatic roadmap for the sector and financial commitments sufficient to ensure predictable, flexible, and sustainable funding to meet the cost of executing the roadmap.

Former U.S. Secretary of State and Alliance Leadership Council Honorary Chair Hillary Rodham Clinton has committed to chair the event with U.K. Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development Baroness Lindsay Northover, Norwegian Foreign Minister Børge Brende, Ghanaian Foreign Minister Hanna Tetteh, and US Administrator for the Agency of International Development Rajiv Shah as co-hosts.

The Alliance seeks to raise $500 million over three years in grant and investment funding commitments for the clean cooking sector, as well as a high-level political commitment from the global community to scale design, production, distribution, gender integration, and other related programs and policies to achieve wide-scale adoption of clean cooking solutions.

The Alliance, in concert with its 45 national partners, as well as leading corporations, foundations and investors, will seek to secure financial and in-kind commitments to meet the needs of the Alliance and the broader clean cooking sector.

Participants at this event will include high-level leaders from donor and implementing governments, UN agencies, international organizations such as international financial institutions and regional commissions, the media, and high-level representatives from civil society, academia, the private sector, investment community, and faith-based charities.

Implementing parties will be asked to make commitments and detail their support and intention to meet specific goals for the sector in their respective countries (number of clean cookstoves adopted, ministries engaged, policies in place, funding mobilized, lives saved, etc.). Donor parties will be asked to commit to and detail specific financial and in-kind commitments to the Alliance as well as the clean cooking sector more broadly. Commitments are being actively solicited by the Secretariat with the support of co-host governments and members of the Alliance's Advisory and Leadership Councils, and prospects are being identified from government, philanthropic, UN, business, and investment communities.

Anticipated outcomes from the high-level meeting include commitments from donor and implementing governments for concrete financial and policy/programmatic actions, as well as specific and significant commitments from leading corporations, foundations, investors, and other actors to mobilize the clean cooking sector and advance cost-effective market-based policies and programs that reduce the use of traditional cookstoves and lead to improvements in health, environmental, gender, and livelihoods. The Alliance will also release the final roadmap for Phase 2 of the initiative.

The Alliance will establish a database for the Summit that will track and publicize all financial, in-kind, and programmatic commitments made on behalf of the clean cooking sector by Summit participants. This will allow the Alliance to recognize donor and implementing parties for their commitments to the sector and commitment to address HAP, as well as provide running funding totals, and assess any gaps in support. In addition, the Alliance will quantify the health, gender, environment, and economic benefits arising from the commitments made at the conference.

The Alliance has successfully mobilized $50 million in grants to date for Secretariat-driven sector activities in research, policy, standards, awareness-building, and market development, and leveraged $200 million more in clean cooking funding and investments for the sector at large.

The Cookstoves Future Summit will be open to members of the media. To apply for media credentials, please send an email to Chelsea Hedquist at chedquist@unfoundation.org with your name, title, organization, and email address. Members of the press are welcome to attend the full first day of the Summit, and they are also invited to attend the introductory remarks that will open the commitment session on the second day. The actual commitment session will not be open to the media, but a press release with full outcomes will be available shortly after the session concludes. See the media page for more details.

About The Alliance

The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is a public-private partnership hosted by the UN Foundation to save lives, improve livelihoods, empower women and protect the environment by creating a thriving global market for clean and efficient household cooking solutions. The Alliance is working with its public, private, and non-profit partners to help overcome the market barriers that currently impede the production, deployment, and use of clean cookstoves and fuels in developing countries.